, either."

"Do you think Pembury will come?" asked Stephen, nervously.

"Oh, rather. He'll have to report it in the next _Dominican_. I'll see
he comes."

"Oh, I think he needn't mind," said Stephen, with a queer shyness; "I
could write out a report for him."

"Oh, I dare say; a nice report that would be. No, Tony must be there.
He wouldn't miss it for a five-pound note."

Stephen retired to report these rather alarming prospects of an audience
to his comrades.

"Talking of five-pound notes," said Wraysford, after he had gone, "does
Loman ever mean to pay up that 8 pounds?"

"I don't know; it doesn't look like it," said Oliver. "The fact is, he
came to me yesterday to borrow another pound for something or another.
He said Cripps had been up to the school and tried to make out that
there was another owing, and had threatened, unless he got it, at once
to speak to the head master."

"Did you lend it him?" said Wraysford. "It's a regular swindle."

"I hadn't got it to lend. I told him I was sure the fellow was a thief,
and advised him to tell the Doctor."

"What did he say?"

"Oh, he got in an awful state, and said he would get into no end of a
row, and wouldn't for the world have the Doctor know a word of it."

"I don't like it at all," said Wraysford. "Don't you have more to do
than you can help with that business, Noll, old man."

"But the poor beggar seems regularly at his wits' end."

"Never mind; you'll do him and yourself no good by lending him money."

"Well, I haven't done so, for a very good reason, as I tell you. But
I'm sorry for him. I do believe he can't see that he's being fleeced.
He made me promise not to utter a word of it to the Doctor, so I really
don't know how to help him."

"It's my impression he's good reason to be afraid of the Doctor just
now," said Wraysford. "That Nightingale business has yet to be cleared
up."

The two friends pursued this disagreeable topic no farther, but agreed,
for all Loman wasn't a nice boy, and for all they had neither of them
much cause to love him, they would see the next day if they could not do
something to help him in his difficulty. Meanwhile they gave themselves
over to the pure and refined enjoyment of the "Vocal, Instrumental, and
Dramatic Entertainment."

At seven that evening, after tea, the Fourth Junior room became a centre
of attraction to all Saint Dominic's. Fellows from the Sixth and Fifth,
always ready for novelty in